By Aaron Coley

At Liberty Lake there are many different divisions; Turtles, Freshmen, Sophmores, Juniors and seniors. But what comes after that? CIT and LIT of course! Since so many people love LLDC there would be lots of CITs and LITs and there are already so many great counselors. How does LLDC choose which LITs become counselors? And which CITs to become LITs? What happens if you “fail” the program. I am here to bring you the full story.

Let’s start with CIT’s. You become a CIT after you become a second year senior. Most CITs will be going into 9th grade and will be turning 14-15 years old. CIT’s are not counselors but they are not really campers either. The acronym ‘CIT’ stands for camper in transition. “CITs are just campers with a little bit of training” says Hunter, a former LIT. He also says that CITs have to pay the price of a normal camper to come to camp. Second year seniors can come back to camp the next year and become a CIT. There are about 30 CITs every year. CITs still have electives, however they only get three elective periods and two training periods. If the CIT misbehaves in the CIT program, they may not be able to become an LIT.  Overall, CITs are campers that go through a bit of training and are not fully counselors. LITs on the other hand are a bit different.

I was lucky enough to interview Hunter and his LIT, Liam, for more information. To become an LIT, a CIT has to do several things. First they need to submit an essay. They also need two letters of recommendation and submit their grades. The LLDC staff check what is submitted and sees how well the person did as a CIT. If everything is approved, then they will be able to attend camp the following year as an LIT. According to Liam, a current LIT, there are 31 LITs in the LIT program. LITs do not have to pay full price to come to camp, they only have to pay 1/3rd of the regular price. LITs have to attend at least six weeks of camp. LITs shadow their counselors which means they are stuck to a counselor for the entire summer. They follow their counselor to the electives they have and act just as an extra counselor. LIT stand for leader in training so they are taught to lead groups.

Once the summer is over and the school year begins, they can submit a staff application and are interviewed. The people in charge of hiring the LITs such as Nate, go through and see what the LIT did well and from there decide to hire or not to hire. The LITs are judged on their initiative, behavior, motivation, attitude, being a role model and their Star Points in leadership. Later they will recieve an email explaining why they were or were not hired. Only 50% of LITs are hired.  

I hope this article informed you on how the CIT and LIT programs work and I hope you enjoyed. Thanks for reading!